PENCIL Business Partner Briefing with Ernest Logan
"We believe that a business partnership is the most important aspect of getting the public – the citizens of our city – to understand that they need to support their public schools,” said CSA President Ernest Logan at a PENCIL Business Partner Briefing on March 11 at the Time Warner building in Manhattan.
PENCIL is a non-profit organization that sponsors the Principal for a Day Partnership program. Schools form partnerships with outside organizations, businesses or individuals who offer advice and/or resources to the school. Mr. Logan credited PENCIL for its philanthropic efforts in allowing public schools to build close connections with company executives who offer a fresh perspective to schools.
The audience asked questions about a number of topics including teacher retention, Last In First Out (LIFO) and teacher education schools. Mr. Logan said Principals of new schools should not hire only new, inexperienced teachers because school administrators should always anticipate budget cuts. “If you ever have cut backs, you are going to lose all of your brand-new teachers,” he said. A great school has seasoned as well as new teachers, Mr. Logan explained. “A senior teacher working with a new teacher helps him over the hump because they are going to share best practices,” he said.
Mr. Logan also emphasized why unions are so important to the working classes. He gave a brief history of the formation of CSA, which occurred during the civil rights movement. “CSA came about in the 1960s because there were groups of supervisors around the city who felt no one was looking out for their own interests,” he said.
